Sundays are a day for God, family and football. Growing up, we gathered around the living room TV after church with plenty of snacks to fuel our pigskin-loving souls, and as an adult I’ve continued on with this ritual, now sharing it with my husband and two young daughters. I took up Fantasy Football nearly a decade ago, only further entrenching myself with the sport. Central to this dedication is one team that I am, have been and always will be firmly committed to — the Green Bay Packers.

Recently released in theaters, Green and Gold is the product of Anders and Davin Lindwall, who spent their Sundays much like what I described. And while, yes, football is a unifying factor within this film, it’s more of a character than anything else. The Lindwall brothers drew deep inspiration for the film from their grandfather, who was a dairy farmer, and the rural communities much like the one they grew up in. Frequently these regions are characterized as “hokey” or used as a backdrop for horror films, and that’s not what the Lindwalls wanted to convey. They wanted to represent the heart and soul of the land and the people cultivating it. Therein lies many of the central themes we see play out throughout the film.

Buck (Craig T. Nelson) owns a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin and runs it in a way deemed archaic by many. He still uses horses in the fields and hand milks the cows (who are all lovingly named after the 1967 Packers team). His wife, Margaret (Annabel Armour), and granddaughter Jenny (Madison Lawlor), also live and work on the farm with him, along with the help of farmhand Aaron (Ashton Moio). Together they foster a way of life that is humble, honest work.

But their bank doesn’t care about the values of the farm, they care about the value. And with that, their lender, Jerry (Tim Frank), turns up one day to slap a foreclosure notice on their barn doors due to delinquent loan payments. Somewhat in jest, Jerry offers to give Buck another year to catch up on payments if his beloved Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl. Although Buck doesn’t take the deal at first, claiming he isn’t a betting man, a reminder from Jenny that farming is in and of itself a gamble eventually leads him to accept the bet. The fate of the farm and hail mary wager are central to the plot, however the land represents something deeper. 

You’ll no doubt hear Green and Gold described as a “love letter to rural America,” which is true. The world needs to eat and farmers provide food that we eat. But the film exposes the deepest roots of what these rural farmers are truly accomplishing. Farming isn’t just a job or a way of life, it’s a sacred act. “There’s a holiness in how you care for things,” Scotty (M. Emmet Walsh) poetically describes to Jenny. It’s the quiet work of faithful people doing right by the soil and the animals to nurture them and, in turn, nurture the world.

The film captures the essence of faith. Unwavering, it shines a light on the potential of the land before us, the ambitions inside of us, and the people around us. There’s resiliency in faith; the ability to press on even when the outlook is bleak. It requires a patience that only faith can sustain. But faith isn’t self-preserving. Faith must too be nurtured and cared for. Much like your favorite sports team on any given Sunday, hope gives you something to believe in, but faith keeps you believing even when the chips don’t fall where you want them to.

Green and Gold lands clear through the uprights. Through the use of conflicting loyalties, familial bonds and Midwestern humor, moviegoers will find themselves laughing, crying and even inspired. Farmers will feel understood in an authentic way, just as the Lindwalls were hoping to accomplish. It’s a film that will ignite the agriculture community and re-establish those unifying roots between all of us. Take some time to see this on the big screen if you can, and be sure to bring some tissues just in case your eyes “catch some wind” (thanks for that one, Charlie Berens).